I happened upon a military census today while doing my habitual searching for Faunts. William Faunt of Louth served in the10th Foot and was stationed in Chelsea in 1811. He was 5'9" (he grew an inch after enlistment) and had fair skin, grey eyes,brown hair and a long visage. I know there are Flaxgrowers in Louth in a census and I thought to figure out the family.
In or around January 1384 one of the Walter L'enfants dies leaving a widow Elena and son and heir Thomas. This Walter held lands in Kildare and Louth and held in chief in Ardee. Thomas was surely young as we then find him claiming the manor of Ardee in September 1403 which he and his heirs would hold of the King. In 1406 he pays to have any fines removed from his lands in Kilkenny.
In 1394 Nicholas Faunt is mayor of Drogheda and a William Faunt is Vicar of Drogheda in the late 1370s. We can assume that Thomas son of Walter had cousins and uncles, although they were not the lords of Ardee. The book Crisis and Survival in Late Medieval Ireland: The English of Louth and their Neighbors, 1330-1450 indicates the Faunts were the Lords of Ardee until after 1430.
This line of the Lords of Ardee died out sometime after this but the descendants of some of these people lived on through the 19th century apparently as we can see here with William the soldier. Living there also were James of Tallenstown and Thomas of Phillipstown and Patt and others like James in Edmonstown as well.in the late 18th century.
We know that at least two lines go extinct for titles of persons descending from one or another Walter L'enfant. The Peerage held by Walter the Justice becomes extinct by 1374, as does the Lordship of Ardee after 1450.The lineage of this family, carries on in their descendants although without the lands and titles.
The Y DNA lines have proven this as a fact and we continue to gather records and tell their story. There are few now who live in Ireland but they left their imprint on the land for these 700+ years since they came to it.
Medieval Gate- Drogheda Louth
